Tells about leaving graduate school at Columbia University for a tenure-track position at Rocky Mountain College in Montana, where the English department had three members, and the library had only 63,000 volumes as opposed to Columbia's 6.5 million. Discusses trying to adjust professional aims. (PA)

Suggests that successful strategies for retaining faculty lines will vary widely according to local circumstances. Discusses the cases of the University of Oregon and the State University of New York Stony Brook, which suggest that English departments stand to gain if they can demonstrate that adding faculty lines will help overcome the split…

Describes how members of the English Department at Texas Tech University redesigned their site as an open system in which control is distributed among department members. Describes the conversational approach they used to redesign the site, applies it to a critique of the original web site, then describes changes they implemented to remake the…

Offers a case study in curriculum change that reveals a very different experience--one that demonstrates a discipline more alive than ever. Presents a story of how the lively canon debates prompted the English department at Montclair State University to restructure the English major. Finds that the culture wars, critical theory, poststructuralism,…

Describes how college instructors might make the move toward building community and fostering collaboration rather than working in isolation. Provides an autobiographical account of how two English teachers began such a journey. (HB)

Shares observations about factors critical in the outcomes of the review of Ohio's state-supported doctoral programs in English. Details some of the responsibilities and challenges that both the departments and review panel faced in developing extensive self-studies. Argues that departments should address mismatches or anomalies in their programs.…

Notes that it is not easy to help students enter into ongoing dialogues on ethics in both school-based and more immediate environments, ask students to consider ethics on both personal and social planes, and require students to write and reflect to stave off the disembodiment of culture. Describe a course that helps students to see rhetoric and…

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) offers student workshops that range from Cool New Web Stuff (what is on the web that can help make research or just plain life easier) and How To Use Google Scholar. These workshops are brilliant fodder for podcasting. In fact, the initial idea for its podcast project came from a student plagiarism…

Describes the changes and problems of the English department in adjusting to a new core curriculum at a liberal arts college. Discusses assumptions about planning, course requirements, and course content beneficial to the department. (EL)

Describes the efforts of a college English department to redesign its English curriculum. Includes a curriculum outline and descriptions of specific courses. (AEA)

Traces the history of the author's experience as the chair of an English department and discusses the leadership required of an effective chair. (DD)

Recounts experiences of the first year of teaching in a rural public university, after graduate study in Philadelphia. States that course loads are heavy because departments are small, and the English department teaches literature but also service courses. Finds the greatest difficulty to be in teaching students who just do not read. (PA)

Describes curriculum review at the State University of New York, Oswego, where faculty and administrators tried to develop an English major that would preserve the best traditional practices and institutionalize innovation. Concludes that curriculum revision would not have moved forward without the Modern Language Association-Fund for the…

Examines the formal and informal (noninstitutionalized) leadership roles of teachers, new and veteran, in a successful high school English department. Provides sketches of teachers in the department and then discusses some leadership issues. (TB)

Suggests that the ideal relationship between the writing center and an English department's writing program is almost symbiotic, each benefiting the other and both forwarding writing as a powerful tool for writing. Describes the writing centers at Montana State University and University of Nevada, Reno. (RS)